Sir Jim Ratcliffe could use INEOS’ part ownership of the Mercedes Formula 1 team to help improve another of his assets, Manchester United.

The British billionaire is a co-owner of both the Silver Arrows and the Red Devils and although there has been little cooperation between the two thus far, that could change in the near future.

Mercedes data analyst set for Manchester United role?

While Mercedes have not been at their title-winning best since 2021, the problems at Manchester United are far deeper and have been going on far longer with the club not winning the Premier League title since 2013.

Ratcliffe took over a portion of the club last year and will now lean on his F1 involvement to improve the data side of the football operations.

That could lead to current Mercedes engineer Michael Sansoni joining Manchester United’s data team, which Ratcliffe told the United We Stand fanzine was “still in the last century of data analysis” and it “doesn’t really exist.”

“Until we’re are as good as anyone in the world, then it’s not good enough for Manchester United,’ he said. “We must have the best recruitment in the world. Data analysis comes alongside recruitment. It doesn’t really exist here. We’re still in the last century on data analysis here.

“There’s immense amount of useful data that we can get from data analysis and we’re in the ‘very poor’ bracket with data analysis here. These things don’t happen overnight.”

Sansoni joined Mercedes in July 2014 before working his way up the performance simulation ranks.

In January 2023, he was promoted to the role of Lewis Hamilton’s performance engineer trackside and now fulfils the same role for Kimi Antonelli.

Despite the potential loss of staff, there is thought to be no ill-will from Mercedes with the move considered one within the INEOS family.

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Manchester United are beaten only by Chelsea in terms of their net spend in the last five seasons but currently sit 14th in the Premier League table.

Ratcliffe invested approximately £1.3 billion to purchase a 27.7% stake in Manchester United in February 2024 under the agreement that he would take over the football strategy from the existing owners, the Glazer family.

The American family continue to retain a majority stake, having first purchased United in June 2005.

In F1, Ratcliffe first became associated with the Silver Arrows when his chemicals company became the team’s title partner in early 2020. That quickly became an ownership deal with Ratcliffe purchasing 33.3%, the same amount owned by Toto Wolff and Daimler.

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